New bike alert! We’re the first people in the UK to get a look at Cannondale’s new Adventure Neo. Well, apart from the nice people at Cannondale that dropped it over. So what’s it all about? Well, it’s “The Most Comfortable Bike You’ll Ever Ride” according to Cannondale. “An electric-bike built for the city streets, the town pathways, and the great open roads. You are just one ride away from a good mood”. Sounds promising.

What it is, then, is a low-step city-friendly e-bike powered by a Bosch motor system. There’s a range of builds; the one we have here is the Adventure Neo 3 EQ, which is nearer the bottom of the range and will have a price of £2,800. All of the bikes use the same SmartForm C3 Alloy frame and a 63mm SR Suntour Mobie A32 fork up front. The Bosch Powetube battery is in the down tube, accessible from a hatch on the top. Cabling for the motor system, brakes and integrated lighting is all internal and the bike looks very neat. The battery hatch means you can’t fit a water bottle on the down tube, but Cannondale has included two mounting points on the head tube for your water if you’re off on a long one.

There’s all the equipment you’d expect to find on a good city bike here. The full-length mudguards are nice and sturdy, and the rear rack and mudguard are integrated for a clean look. All of the bikes use a Shimano derailleur transmission and there’s a full-length chainguard along the top of the chain to protect your clothes. You get a solid kickstand at the back, and all the bikes have fittings for an ABUS frame lock too, to complete the city package. All of the Adventure Neo bikes use 27.5” wheels with big chamber tyres for a comfortable ride on a range of surfaces. The cheapest build, the Adventure Neo 4 EQ, is more of a stripped-back leisure build with no mudguards and rack.

Getting on and off a low-step bike like this is pretty easy but Cannondale has gone a step further with this Adventure Neo 3 EQ build by speccing a TranzX suspension dropper seatpost. It’s remotely operated from the handlebars, so you can lower the saddle to get on and off the bike and then raise it up for a more efficient riding position once you’re going.

If you struggle to get on a saddle at the correct height then this might be a real boon. Plus of course you can drop the saddle to get over the back of the Adventure Neo when you’re sending it down a rocky drop-off. Not that we’d necessarily recommend that. It might also be useful if there’s more than one person in your family riding the bike and you want to switch positions quickly. The two pricier builds of the Adventure Neo swap the suspension dropper ‘post for a Cane Creek Thudbuster suspension seatpost.

The top-of-the-range build, the Adventure Neo 1 EQ, also features Garmin’s Varia Radar system as standard. This system uses a rear-facing radar unit to warn you of traffic coming from behind, using a bar-mounted display that gives you a visual and audible warning of approaching traffic. It’s a system that Cannondale has included on e-bikes in the past and is a useful extra safety feature about town.

We’ve had our Adventure Neo 3 EQ for a week or so now, and our initial impressions are that it’s a very comfortable and easy to pilot bike. It’s ideal for city riding, and we’ll get some more miles under our belt! Look out for a full review on ebiketips soon.

Cannondale Adventure Neo 1 EQ £3,800

Cannondale Adventure Neo 2 EQ £3,200

Cannondale Adventure Neo 3 EQ £2,800

Cannondale Adventure Neo 4 EQ £2,500

www.cannondale.com